International Solidarity Movement

by ISM Hebron, February 16th

Around 10 am a group of human rights workers (HRWs) heard that colonists had entered a Palestinian house overlooking the olive grove on Tel Rumeida Hill. For the past two days colonists had occupied the house briefly, but were sent away by the police.

The house is rented to local Issa Amro, who received the rental contract from owner Ilham Siyej two days ago in order to make a living in the area surrounded by olive trees. Ilham, her husband and their seven children were forced out three years ago by colonist violence. Until recently the house was used as an IOF post. Yesterday the Hebron police were informed that Issa was going to move in and said there was no problem, so it is very suspicious that the colonists had preempted Issa.

When the HRWs arrived the settlers had left already, but it didn’t take long before IOF soldiers came by.

They stated that the house is a “closed military zone” and that the HRWs couldn’t be there. The soldiers were told that the house is owned by a local Palestinian, who was on his way to start making repairs in the house. The IOF soldiers replied that the HRWs now had to leave because they were trespassing on “private property”. The HRWs decided to wait for the rightful owner to come, while the soldiers called the police.

The HRWs then went to wait in a neighbouring Palestinian house. When the owner of the “closed military zone” arrived the HRWs walked up to the house again and started to remove razor wire and camouflage nets, because in recent months the house had been used as a military post.

Again IOF soldiers came by and demanded that everybody leave and stop removing the razor wire. The group, now also supported by Israeli activists, moved a few metres from the house to wait for the arrival of the police. When the police came they showed the owner and HRWs a piece of paper written in Hebrew, saying it was the official document declaring the house a closed military zone. Issa Amro demanded that the document be translated into Arabic, but this was ignored by the police and military. Occupation authorities said that Issa had to get a permit from the DCO.* After translation it transpired that the order is valid for 24 hours, until 12 noon tomorrow.

To avoid a confrontation and possible arrest, the owner decided to leave the house and its surroundings. The HRWs left the hilltop escorted by a group of five soldiers.

Tel Rumeida contains hundreds of empty houses and shops, whose residents have been forced out by colonist violence and military orders. Issa aims to reverse this trend: “all these houses in Tel Rumeida are lying empty whilst there is an acute housing shortage in the rest of the city. The Israeli authorities can’t continue to deny residents of Hebron their basic rights to live in their homes. We will not submit to the ethnic cleansing policies of the Israeli authorities in our city. I will exercise my right to live in a house I have rented in my city.”

Three years ago colonists started building a road that would cut through the olive grove where the house is located in order to link the Tel Rumeida colony at the top of the hill and Shuhada Street in the Old City. A Stop Work Order was issued temporarily halting construction of the road.

*District Coordination Office – the civilian administration wing of the Israeli military in the West Bank

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Later in the afternoon HRWs went down to monitor checkpoint 56 in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood. Around 3 pm they heard a rubber bullet being fired followed by teargas on the other side of the checkpoint. HRWs went through the container checkpoint dividing H1 and H2 and into the Bab al Zawiya market area.

As teargas wafted though the air, locals said that a young Palestinian man had been shot with a rubber bullet. He had been taken away to hospital in a private car. Witnesses stated he was about 15-years old and was shot in the leg by invading IOF soldiers.

More soldiers started to enter the Bab al-Zawiya area, around 4 pm about thirty of them patrolled the neighbourhood and occupied two rooftops. After an hour they returned to their jeeps behind the checkpoint in Tel Rumeida.

by ISM Hebron, February 15th

Federico the “photographer”, chatting to a soldier

At around 2 pm human rights workers (HRWs) witnessed a young Palestinian man, Jihad Salfi Arab, beingd arrested by soldiers near checkpoint 56 in Tel Rumeida. He was violently pushed through the checkpoint where soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded him.

The IOF soldiers carried copies of pictures taken from the clashes last week in the Bab al-Zawiya area. They said he was visible in one the pictures, but wouldn’t show this to the HRWs. The Palestinian young man was then taken to the police station.

Throughout the afternoon IOF soldiers invaded the Bab al-Zawiya neighbourhood in Palestinian controlled H1. At around 2:30 pm 30 soldiers went through checkpoint 56. Six soldiers occupied the roof of a high building overlooking the busy market area and pointed their guns at the crowds below. Another group of six soldiers walked in the direction of the Old City. Four other soldiers entered a woman’s clothes shop and a pharmacy on al-Adel street and investigated the area. HRWs who were present assumed that they were looking for Palestinians who had been throwing stones during last week’s clashes.

The HRWs witnessed how for the past two days, soldiers at checkpoint 56 had been comparing young Palestinians with pictures taken from the clashes. These pictures were given to them by an Argentinian “photographer” who had become a good friend of the soldiers since the beginning of the clashes, last week on Wednesday. Federico the “photographer” has become a helpful partner for the IOF in recognising and arresting wanted Palestinians. Soldiers asked him to take pictures which he generously did.

Federico the “photographer”, hanging out with soldiers at the Tel Rumeida checkpoint

For the second day in a row, settlers invaded a temporarily vacant Palestinian house in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood, on top of a hill overlooking the olive grove. About 15 settlers, women and children, arrived at 4 pm and stayed for one hour, until the arrival of the police, who were called by the nextdoor Palestinian neighbours. When HRWs heard about the occupation, they went to the house, but both the police and the IOF soldiers did not allow them to stay, claimimg it’s an “army zone”. The HRWs saw that Hebrew letters had been painted on the walls. The Palestinian neighbour said that yesterday the settlers managed to stay for a few hours in the house, but were finally sent away by the police. Yesterday the area surrounding the house had been sealed off by the IOF, making it impossible for HRWs to get near to the house.

by Christian Peacemaker Teams, February 14th

Hajj Mahmoud in front of his demolished house

Israeli soldiers demolished homes in three Palestinian villages near bypass road 317 on February 14, 2007. Starting in Imneizil at around 9am about forty Israeli soldiers with two bulldozers demolished one home, an animal pen and a stone bake-oven. At noon the soldiers moved to Qawawis where they demolished the homes of five families and one bake-oven, then on to Um Al-Kher where they demolished one home and damaged a wall of another home.

At Imneizil several young children were in their home eating when the Israeli military arrived; the soldiers gave the family time to get out, but did not give them time to remove their personal belongings. The animal pen was demolished with a few animals inside; two lambs were injured. The Palestinian family began immediately to build a makeshift pen for the animals as the majority of the sheep were just returning from grazing in the fields.

In the village of Qawawis one of the demolished homes was over sixty-five years old, and sheltered two families. Photos of the families amid the rubble are on the CPT photo gallery: http://www.cpt.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album93

The Israeli military, in concert with Israeli settlers, has been trying to force the Palestinian residents of the south Hebron hills to leave their homes for years. Due to harassment from the nearby Israeli outposts several of the young families of Qawawis moved to a nearby town; when the Israeli army then forcibly evacuated the remaining families, a court ordered that the families could return to their homes. According to a lawyer representing the families, the Israeli army now claims that this court ruling allows only the last inhabitants of Qawawis to return, not their children who earlier fled the assaults of the Israeli settlers.

“Our children need homes,” said one villager. “What do they want us to do?”

The Israeli army said, “Twenty illegal structures were destroyed after demolition orders were issued, and offers were made to the owners to pursue the available options before the planning organizations. The supervisory unit of the civil administration will continue to operate against illegal building activity in the area, and to implement the steps mandated by law against this illegal activity.” The Israeli military made no provisions for shelter for the families whose homes they demolished. The families asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide them with tents.

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions said, “A building permit is unavailable there [in the south Hebron hills].” The preceding day three Israeli peace activists and two internationals, including CPTer Sally Hunsberger, joined approximately fifty Palestinians in working on their land near Imneizil. The Palestinian men, women and children planted 600 olive trees in fields that they had afraid to walk on for the past four years due to threats of settler violence. During the action, soldiers and settlers watched from a distance, but did not interfere with the tree planting.